Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-08-11
THE NORTHWEST
THE Centennial HISTORY Or OHIO.
BIT W. FARRAsD FEUCH.
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OF tnls cNlluCN nnllOn. IHt
was tiIler of the soil, not asavage hunter
like his.pal@olithic or preglacial progenitor.
He made and wore garments of cloth, as
evidenced by fragments of shroud found.
and by the stone shuttles. The people who
wore garments would possibly also live in
houses or shelters of wood or adobe, or else
dug from solid rock as by the Cliff-dwellers
in Arizona. Having q home. he was not
restless being, q wonderer, like the red man
of the plains. He venerated sacred localities
and favored certain localities for residence,
generally near some lake or river where he
fshed. He was not low or groveling IN his
tastes: he was industrious, for his works
indicate many days and years of hard labor
upon the mounds and upon the implements
and ornaments to adorn his home, decorate
his person. embellish his temples.
He may have had system of picture-w writ
ing by which he communicated thought. He
had knowledge of surveying, for his
elaborate works at Marietta and Newark are
laid out with presision; the squares and
circles embracing acres in extent. are ac-
curately made, while his Notifications are
admirably constructed.
He was trader and had communication,
by peaceful purchase or barter. with far-dls-
tant lands. for we find in Ohio. Illinois,
Wisconsin and Iowa mounds obsidian from
Mexico in its rough state. as well as in the
form of implements. His mode of COM
municating news was not by the slow means
of carriers. but by signals flashed from
mound to mound.
His religion was exalted, for his divinity,
the sun, was the most powerful manifestation
of benignity presented to the human mind
The original belief of man was that every
thing consisted of two parts-a body and
spirit. The beings which fill the Indian
universe are not supernatural, do not have
the attributes of God, and are more like the
osfs hot GII M minds today -
Every river and every bend of river had its
spirit. The spirits of falls, rapids and
cataracts were especially dreaded. Drown
ing was ascribed to the work of n spirit. 1T
may be that sun-worship had its origin in
the following way: Everything having a
body and spirit, the sun Is supposed to be a
sun-spirit, as well as sun-forn1. Hence the
superstitious regard for it, as the most
powerful of all spirits or deities. Savages do
not distinguish such things as sun and moon
from animals and men, but all are instinct
with life and are hence personified.
The Mound-builder made his, own, pottery
and ornamented it with fanciful designs, and
30 with the pipes in which hesmoked tobacco.
He also cultivated corn, leaving it as legacy
to the red Indians and they to the white men,
the so-called "Indian maize" But he did
not make whisky from il or from other cerals,
let it be hoped. 80 Z 6
Heloved display, for we have his baton of
Office, highly ornamented green stone axe,
too frail to be used in cutting wood or crush
ing skulls. He was wood cutter. He was
a mechanic, for no modern stone-cutter could
shape fiint-arrow head of such beauty and
symmetry. He was also a miner and we find
his deserted mines on Lake Superior and his
stone tools as he left them in the shaft, as
we'll as his tempered copper tools,
He was gregarious being. as he lived In
villages: religious being, Offering sacrifices
to the Sun-God; believer in Immortality,
for his choicest property was buried with
him that he might enjoy it in another world;
an affectionate being, for his children were
buried in the same mound, with all their toys
etuu DeIonginsa- -14'-
Finally, we may conclude, he was under
some form of government, whether OF vas
salage, absolute monarchy, or only a brother
hood for mutual defence or benefit we do
not know, but we can safely attribute to it
more than tribal relations, and perhaps 1t at
tanned the proportions of a great nation In
The construction of such works as we have
described, there ia implied system of labor
fully as we'll organized as that which resulted
in the building of the Pyramids of Egypt and
other monuments of antiquity. Barbarians
construct no permanent structures, build no
temples, care little for the proper disposal of
their dead and depend upon the spoils of the
chase, which necessitates frequent change af
residence. No such works as the fortitica-
tions at Newark or at Fort Ancient could have
been built by nomads or savages. They were
then, at all events, semi mi-civilized, agricul-
turists. artisans and in many. ways superior
to the Red Indians who subjugated or sue
ceeded them, and of whom we shall treat at
full length in the next chapter.
CHAPTER Iv.-THE INDIANS OF THE OHIO VAL
LEY-rHE1R HABITAT, HISTORY AND RELIGION.
The Mound-builders were probably exter-
minated by the Indians of more recent times,
as they in turn have been compelled to give
place to the white intruders. It will be ap-
propriate, in this connection, to give some
account of their habitat, and the migrations
of the various Indian tribes in Ohio, during
and before the advent of the white men.
For long period after the departure Of the
Mound Builders from this region, it is sup
posed the upper Ohio Valley had no perman-
emit population, and so on even down to the
times of authentic history, when the white
man first appeared, nowhere was any indica
ton of human habitaton, at the time the
country was first explored by the French
yoyageurs, and even century later British
and American traders found it but sparsely
settled.
Says Mr.. Louis II. Morgan, in "The Indian
Miscellany: "The principal nations of
village Indians in Mexico, if their traditions
can be trusted, were themselves emigrants
from the North, but three or four centuries
prior to the Spanish Conquest" 'There
10 wide district of country upon both sides
of the Ohio river, occupying half the space
between the great lakes and the Gulf, which
formed the poorest part of the area east of
the Mississippi. It was not destitute of
game, but poor in fisheries, and therefore
uninhabitable without cultivation of the soil.
The absence of lakes throughout this entire
erea, and the turbid character of the waters
of the Mississippi, which excluded ocean fish,
furnish sufficient reason why this entire re-
,pion was solitude at the period of European
discovery. It also tends 10 show that the
Mound Builders who occupied this area
chiefly north of the Ohio-were village
Indians probably from New Mexico; other
wise they would not have selected this region
in preference to Others"
One reason for this apparent desertion OF
country so fertile and exhaustless, except as
a fishing ground, was that the Ohio river
soon became the highway of q fierce and war
like nation, the bloody Iroquois. Down its
placid bosom silently hoated the canoes of
this formidable nation, coming from the
Northward, and bringing devastation and
warfare wherever they encountered opposi-
tion. The numerous outlooks and signal
mounds along the great stream-probably
built for the same purpose by the Mound
Builders, or as mounds of refuge-were now
occupied and invested by the deadly Iroquois,
called "The Five Nations" The hills or
mounds on either side of the noble Ohio river
was advantageous points for observation,
commanding great scope of country back
from the river bottoms on all sides. The few
Indians who dwelt in adjoining territory
were in constant dread of the inyincible